Castle of Reality
by Taael
Summary: AU


This Sword Art Online fan fiction requires you to have watched or read the entire first season and some the second season in order fully understand. I will have some OC's in this story and this will be an alternate universe. That's all I have to say, I hope you all enjoy this story, Castle of Reality.

**Disclaimer****: I do not own Sword Art Online**

Thud. The sound of two bamboo swords colliding resonated throughout the gym as two fighters faced off. The physical difference between the two was vast; one had a major height advantage but, that did not mean the shorter one was at a disadvantage by any means. Thwack. Another solid hit rang out in large room, followed by the sounds of people whispering amazement and praise. The shorter one, who was on the receiving end of the downward hit, quickly pushed the shinai to the left, exposing her opponent's entire front region. Quickly, she aimed for the throat or tsuki of the opponent, only to find the shinai impossibly blocked by the opponent's shinai. Onlookers stared in awe at the seemingly impossible sight; suddenly the tide of the battle changed.

The taller swordsman adjusted from a single-handed grip on his shinai to a two handed grip. The true difference in strength quickly became apparent as the shorter individual quickly began to become tired and weak from blocking all the strikes from the taller opponent. Believing that he had given his opponent a good enough fight, he ended it. He suddenly used a powerful strike at the left side of his opponent, who, to her credit, blocked the hit and tried to follow up with a counter attack. As his opponent jabbed at him, he spun and ducked under the shinai and performed a strike on the right side of his opponent. Just as his shinai swung down with great vigor and speed, he stopped millimeters before touching her head as the referee called out,

"Hidari-Men! Game set!"

The audience members, who had been watching, burst into applause and cheer as they watched the two swordsmen bow to one another after what appeared to be an amazing match. As the crowd dispersed and left to go home, a conversation erupted between the two swordsmen.

"Hmph!" The girl pouted after she had placed her helmet and sword to the side.

Her opponent, a boy, nervously laughed and rubbed the back of his head as he faced the girl. The girl's name was Minori Harumi, a second year at Tatsumi High School, extremely short for her age, teasing, joyful, responsible, and a beautiful girl. The boy's name was Kirigaya Kazuto, a first year at Tatsumi High, who had actually skipped a grade. Kazuto was described as a seclusive, strong, smart, pretty boy, and a massive female attention holder; only his male classmates used the last characteristic to refer to him, however.

"I thought you said you would have a serious fight with me!" Harumi stated as she continued to pout.

"I did have a serious fight with you, President," Kazuto replied firmly.

"Oh really? I thought you told me that when you used two hands that that's when you're using your full strength and trying your hardest. You only did that at the end." Harumi countered as she held her ground.

"But, doesn't that mean I was level with you and had to use both my hands to end the fight…" Kazuto stopped himself as he realized what he was saying.

"See, you even admitted yourself. You were equal with me when using one hand, but that's not your full strength! I want to see your full power, unless you're afraid of hurting an Ojou-sama?" Harumi teased as she crossed her arms and leaned towards him, emphasizing her chest and feminine body, her voice quickly traveling throughout the gymnasium, catching the attention of some students leaving.

"Hey, is Minori-san challenging Kirigaya-kun again?" A male student asked.

"Yeah, I think so. Hey, let's go watch. That previous fight was pretty cool," a female student replied.

As agreement quickly spread amongst the crowd, they changed directions back toward the bleachers on the side. But before they could reenter the gym, the disciplinary chairman, Kaneko Nori, blocked the door.

"Why is everyone still here," Nori sighed, "For students that do not have any activities here, please leave."

Everyone groaned and complained as they began to leave the premise. Kendo was the only reason why many students stayed after school, and it became a routine that Nori would have to force them to leave.

'_Why must the kendo club always attract the largest crowd? Wait, no… In fact, why do they even come at all to watch this club at a practice?_' Nori thought, although she was also guilty of this; whenever she had time, she would also come to watch the spectacles.

The kendo club in Tatsumi High had always been very prestigious, one of top ten in terms of ranking in the country. They were never undermined or ignored, but this school was still a regular high school. Anyone who could test in could come, be it for its close distance to home or another reason that was often not kendo-related. So, most of the time when students enrolled, they didn't enroll to come to play kendo. This meant it was rarely regarded as highly by incoming freshman students and older students alike. But, that all changed after that one boy showed up last year.

Last year was a rarity, many first years joined Tatsumi High because of its Kendo program and they were all skilled, many of them having playing the sport since elementary school, some predecessors of families of Kendo practitioners, and some even champions at the national level, making them the strongest year that Tatsumi High ever had. They quickly won Sectionals, Regionals, and became favorites for national champion. But, at the same time though a rumor started to spread, a single boy who represented a no name middle school, who was brought in as part of a small social experiment and expected to lose in the first event was winning all the events. The fact that only one student was winning competition was amazing enough but, he was fighting students much older than him and in order to win at an event that involved a team, he had to face off against every single member and win. The boy was quickly known as the Black Swordsman, named after his attire that remained consistent every time he was competing. But, his name held a darker meaning; he was known to thoroughly crush his opponents, leaving them with broken bones and a lot of bruises.

He soon shocked everyone throughout the Kendo world even more, by competing as a middle school student at a national high school kendo championship. When everyone at Tatsumi High watched him face other schools they were surprised at how fast he beat his opponents and the vast difference in skill level between his opponents and him, even at the national level. His matches made some previous champions appear like amateurs, as he immediately as the match started would call out a hit and accomplish his move without fail on those individuals. No matter how hard the person would try to block the hit he would always find a way to hit them. Time quickly passed as Tatsumi High was set to verse the Black Swordsman, the one-man army in the championship match.

Every single student Tatsumi High felt the pressure because as this was the first time in seven years that Tatsumi High even reached nationals let alone the final match, even though they were in the top ten. Labeled as the strongest year that Tatsumi High ever had, they felt that it was their duty to carry their school to victory. As their 50 members stood in the middle of the field on the stadium, they held a sight to behold, the boy smiled as he walked towards them, the first time he had smiled throughout the entire competition. His aura had changed from a serious aura to one of happiness and relaxed, which underwhelmed the expectations of the entire kendo team who were all carrying stoic faces.

"Nice to meet you all, senpais. My name is Kirigaya Kazuto and I look forward to a good match with all of you." Kazuto spoke as he smiled brightly at his opponents as he bowed.

If this had not been a competition many people would lighten up and would not remain as serious. But, this was the national championship, a competition that all meant something special in each of their hearts. So they were not going to get friendly with their opponent no matter their opponent's attitude. Without a word the entire Tatsumi High team turned as they returned to their equipment.

'_What was expecting? They are all serious about this competition but, I was hoping to at least to lighten the mood a little bit._' Kazuto thought with a sigh as he mentally prepared to the fight.

As the middle school student went to his equipment, Tatsumi High had already reached theirs and was getting a pep talk by their team captain, younger brother of the team captain that lead his class to victory 12 years.

"Alright everyone, our opponent is a middle school student with insane movement speed, reaction time, and strength never seen before even at the high school level competition by any person." The team captain explained as everyone sweat dropped.

'_How is that suppose to help us?!_' Everyone thought.

"But, we are also strong. We are the strongest we have ever been in years! First years, I expect you to not let us down! Second years, lend your experience to the first years!" The captain continued, "For some us this will be our last time competing so I hope everyone gives it their all!"

Everyone gave a shout as they got hyped for the match and quickly took their places near the mat with their equipment. Settling down, they saw their biggest obstacle, The Black Swordsman, fully equipped and standing in the middle of the map. As a part of courtesy of committee, they allowed the middle school student to pick his order of opponents and his first opponent he selected was the team captain. The entire crowd started to cheer as they saw the team captain of the Tatsumi High step up to be the first opponent. The crowd was filled with all the teams who had participated but had lost at the hands of either the single boy or Tatsumi high but, still they all cheered in hopes of seeing The Black Swordsman crushed. 30,000 shouts of excitement, cheer, and wishes of good luck to both sides roared and vibrated the air as the captain and The Black Swordsman faced each other.

When they got the signal to start silence ensued as everyone watch attentively to see if the middle schooler was really going to hold out or the other way around, was he going to hold back? Instead of immediately going for the strike, The Black Swordsman just stood there as team captain started to circle him trying to figure out his plan of action. At this time many first years at Tatsumi High noticed something peculiar, the Black Swordsman had changed the way he held his shinai, instead of holding it with two hands he held it with one hand. This put him at a disadvantage because the strength of one hand could not beat a two-handed downward strike. The referees seemed to notice but not voice their opinions, as it did not break any rules.

Taking advantage of the fact that his opponent was only using one hand, the captain swung down on his opponent's head using a strong strike. Thwack, to everyone's surprise the sound of two shinais colliding could be heard. What was even more surprising was the face that Kazuto was still using one hand to block the captain's two hand downward strike. The Black Swordsman jumped back and allowed for space between to compile the information he had gathered in such short span of time. Data Compilation, a skill that anyone could do but not anyone could get enough information from one contact with anything but, Kazuto was taught from a young age to observe every detail making such an open fight with no obstacles easy to gather more than enough information.

'_The team captain is quite competent, good form, good speed, and subpar instincts. I don't thing a drawn out fight will go well for my energy if I have to face all the students of Tatsumi High. So Let's try ending it by destroying his Shinai._' Kazuto thought as the captain once again began to circle around him.

Waiting for the captain to be in front of him Kazuto tightened his grip on his Shinai as he prepared for the strike. His tense state was easily visible to everyone watching as they got prepared to see something amazing happen. Suddenly when the captain was in the perfect position Kazuto bolted at him with a speed almost unrecognizable to the eye, the captain quickly performed a downward strike believing that Kazuto was going for a low strike. Knowing that this was going to happen, Kazuto swung perpendicular to the downward strike, which snapped the captain's shinai in half. Slowing himself down, Kazuto finished his strike in the downward crouching position behind the captain as the captain stared at his broken shinai. The whistle blew signifying a quick pause in the match to replace the broken shinai. Watching what had just happened Tatsumi High froze, a middle schooler had just broken their team captain's shinai, a feat never accomplished before. The audience just let their jaws hit the floor as the tried to figure out a logical explanation as to what just happened. The referees were arguing if the move Kazuto had just done was illegal or not as the captain stood still staring at his only other shinai.

A decision was made, the move Kazuto done was legal and the match was allowed to resume. This time though when the match started Kazuto did what he done in his previous matches, he quickly shouted out,

"Men!"

Using a two-handed strike, Kazuto swung down on the captain's head. Knowing that attacking was futile, the captain immediately tried to block the path of the shinai with his own, focusing all his strength on defending. But, as Kazuto's shinai made contact with the captain's shinai, the latter one was cut in half by the former as it passed clean through the defense and made contact with the captain's head.

"Hi-yah!" Kazuto battle cried as his shinai came into contact with the captain's head.

"W-winner Kirigaya Kazuto based on fact that the opponent has no more shinais to use!" The judge announced as applause and cheers quickly spread through the stadium at this show of strength.

"Thank you for the fight. I really enjoyed it. I hope we have a rematch another day."

Kazuto said as he bowed.

"As did I, you really are strong and I wish you the best of luck. But, I don't think you can beat the rest of us though!" The captain said with confidence as he bowed.

Although secretly, a grudge was formed was formed between the two, it was mostly one sided though.

"I understand, I look forward to your underclassmen." Kazuto replied with a slight smile.

**3 Hours later**

The score was 49-0 with Kazuto clutching the lead with virtually no competition. After his fight with the team captain, he easily crushed the entire team. 3rd years finished in 50 minutes, 2nd years finished in half an hour, and 1st years were not currently done yet, but so far, it had reached the 1 hour and 40 minutes. The crowd had lost all hope of Tatsumi High winning, even though they only had to defeat him once, out of 49 tries to beat him, only two people had even scored a point on him, proving how much of a skill difference existed between everyone and him. But, there was still one more freshman; a girl of small stature walked up to Kazuto.

With a raised eyebrow, Kazuto stared at the girl, who seemed to not care that, even though she was two years older than him, she was still shorter. The audience seemed to believe that she was going to lose quickly and allow the boy to win, but they were they wrong, so very wrong. As she stood in front of Kazuto with her shinai in front, Kazuto felt something different about her, something like a hidden gem. Her face remained emotionless even as Kazuto wielded his own shinai with one hand in front of him. Although on the inside the girl was panicking,

'_What do I do! I can barely predict his movements! I've never been this overwhelmed by someone before!_'

"Are you ready?" The referee asked both of them.

As both nodded, the referee raised his hand and slashed downward, shouting, "Start Match!"

Taking the initiative, the girl moved toward against Kazuto quickly, slashing from his left and right side as fast as she could. A typical opponent would have given up a point here, but not Kazuto, who with ease, deflected all the hits to the outside. Jumping back, Kazuto created some space to allow him some rest time before he figured out his next plan, but, unlike previous opponents who would take the opportunity to rest as well, the girl followed him and continued her onslaught. This time adding an occasional jab to try to throw Kazuto's rhythm off, but she got an expected result; him blocking all of them. Unknown to her, it garnered some its desired effects.

'_I really need to create some space!_' Kazuto thought desperately as he jumped back again.

The once silently audience members started to get excited as they noticed, for the first time, Kazuto was being forced to stay on the defensive. Tatsumi High members, who were once frustrated, started to gain some hope of winning and looked on attentively.

'_I've got him now! He can't use any of his combos!_' The girl thought as she still managed to continue her attack and block some of his blinding speed strikes.

Kazuto's style relied on one key factor, combos. His style of kendo relied on multiple, well planned, and powerful combination strikes. His strikes were not random; he practiced hundreds of combinations of hits that all were offensive, defensive, or well rounded. Offensive combos aimed for vital areas, blind spots, and unpredictable trajectories with devastating effects, but with the trade off of a high risk of being hit. Defensive combos aimed to tire, weaken, and allow for user to transition back on the offensive. Well rounded combos held a little bit of each of the offensive and defensive combos, and could be modified on the go, making them the most versatile. The biggest trade off of using combos is that they take a little bit of time to 'prepare'. The time was very short though; less than half a second in most cases, but the speed of the girl that kept on coming onto Kazuto made half a second to prepare almost impossible. Even if he used his fast movement speed, she was able to read his moves and block exactly in the right place as if she could see in the future.

'_I underestimated her, she is an extremely seasoned kendo practitioner!_' Kazuto thought as he berated himself for underestimating her because of her size and not believing the crazy data he obtained about her from fighting her.

The girl held a smug smile underneath her facemask as the crowd broke their silence and started to cheer for her as she continuously pushed back Kazuto, who appeared to be struggling. Feeling her own fatigue start to settle in, she decided to get the first point. She suddenly and continually increased her speed, which quickly overwhelmed Kazuto, who thought that her previous speed was already her max, until she gained an opening. Slashing his shinai to the right and exposing his entire chest region, she went for a hard and fast overhead, downward strike. Time slowed down as her shinai went toward his chest and when it was inches away, time stopped. Suddenly, she noticed his body start to move quickly, in less than a tenth of a second getting out the way of her downward shinai with inches to spare and rushing past her until his facemask was right next to hers.

"**Good try, but you gave me too much time,**" Kazuto whispered as his head passed by hers. His shinai followed closely behind as it made contact with her facemask.

"M-men!" The referee shouted as the girl was knocked flat on her back from the hit.

This was followed by the crowd getting angry as they shouted profanities at the boy and yelled at the referees to check if she hadn't hit him first. The referees talked amongst themselves about the call as the judges scrambled to find a video that had a high enough FPS to watch the scene in slow motion. In the meantime, the entire Tatsumi high team ran out to check up on their only hope.

"Are you ok, Minori-san!?" various classmates shouted as they reached her.

By the time they had reached her, she had already stood up and was watching her opponent, who everyone else purposely avoided looking at. The boy was standing as he inspected his shinai without a care in the world. As everyone quickly realized she was okay, they backed off a little bit so as to not obscure her view of her opponent, who, at the same moment, quickly realized he was being watched.

'_So, her name is Minori… Interesting…_' Kazuto thought to himself as he easily handled all the hatred being directed toward him.

"The point given to Kirigaya Kazuto was fair!" The referee announced as his sweat poured down his face from exhaustion.

"We will now continue the match! Fighters, take your position!" Another referee took over as he raised his arm.

Once again, the two stood facing each other with only a few feet separating each other. The stadium quieted down so that even if one person moved it could easily be heard across the stadium. Anxiousness was in everyone's hearts as they were already down a point and the fact that the opponent was 'final boss' didn't help. The pressure the two facing off created equated to two dragons about to kill each.

Looking between the two unstoppable forces, the referee release his hand and shouted, "Start!"

Well, I just wanted to get this chapter out there and see how everyone will enjoy this story. I have to say this story's creation was majorly influenced by my good friend and editor, Virde. I thank him for his tireless effort to edit the many grammar and logical issues of my story. For my other audience, The Revival of the Blackswordsman audience, I will start writing the 14th chapter starting when I post this! So calm down.

-Taael

Note from Editor: This is my first time working on a fan fiction, so let me know if I missed anything. I may be writing another fan fiction that is parallel to this that shows another character's POV, so you'll know from Taael if I ever start. Don't forget to leave criticism for us in the comments; these stories are written by US for YOU. :)

-Virde


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